Robert Peake

Between moving unexpectedly, preparing to launch the online business I have devoted the last year and a half of my life to architecting, meeting with company advisors this past week and all staff in a few weeks time, and just the continual process of coming to terms with life after James, it’s felt like a bit of a whirlwind lately. Still, in the midst of it all, there is an eye to the storm. In this case, we just had to look up. Against a brilliant canvass of Ojai-orange cloud, there appeared not one but two concentric rainbows. Strange, I guess, to find a message of hope in phenomena easily explained by grade-school physics. But there it was.

Last week snow settled into the stripes of the Topa Topa mountains above our house, and further up the canyon dusted all the trees. Then a few days of sunshine. And last night the rain came down by the bucketful. It has been surreal, the fact that the world goes on from here — and us with it. But I’ve been dealing with the mundane world again slowly, doing my best to remember what it’s really all about in the process.

Yesterday PHP Quebec published their list of sessions, and I guess the process was in motion before I decided to pull out, because I noticed my name still there. It just doesn’t make sense for me to travel so far and stay in a hotel, apart from my wife, so soon after the passing of our son. We need to be together, and I still need time. Still, it was great to see my name on the list with Rasmus, Ilia, and others major players in the PHP community. As Chris keeps reminding me, there will be other conferences. And as my heart keeps telling me, there are other, more important things in life.